Re: Postgresql and github

Hi Poul, and thanks for using PostgreSQL! I've also been a very heavy
user of Oracle and now a heavy user of PostgreSQL.

I remember the days before Oracle acquired the RMAN software and
bundled it with their database. Not so long ago, doing backups on
Oracle wasn't so different from PostgreSQL; either you did
storage-level snapshots or you used sql to begin/end backup. At that
time there were many 3rd party tools for managing Oracle backups, much
like the situation with PostgreSQL today. You can write your own
scripts for backup and recovery, or if you want a polished interface
then you can use any of the free or commercial PostgreSQL backup and
recovery tools on the market.

PostgreSQL certainly does have the advanced 24/7 backup and
point-in-time recovery capabilities that you should expect in any
serious database. I would also include 2nd Quadrant's "pglogical"
replication extension which enables near zero-downtime major version
upgrades, similar to what you might do with GoldenGate on Oracle.

Regarding ansible, the Oracle playbook you referenced was published by
Mikael Sandström from Sweden. He and I have both worked on the RAC
Attack project and I remember talking with him about those Ansible
scripts when he first published them! He's not an Oracle employee but
just a community contributor. There are also lots of people
contributing PostgreSQL roles in Ansible Galaxy (backed by GitHub). I
see over 300 Ansible roles; does the link below work for you?

https://galaxy.ansible.com/list#/roles?page=1&page_size=10&autocomplete=postgres

You're certainly right that we could use more step-by-step examples
for new users to PostgreSQL. As you continue learning, I hope you'll
continue to share what stands out to you. You might even consider
writing some blog posts yourself - I would love to read them and pass
them along to other new users! And if you find any errors in the
official PostgreSQL documentation, by all means let us know and we
will address them.

Looking forward to hearing more from you!

-Jeremy